Post-Women Psych Band Viet Cong Shares “Static Wall”

The Calgary four-piece shares a track from its recently-remastered debut ‘Cassette.’

Last fall, I saw Alberta four-piece Viet Cong in a basement bar called L’escogriffe during Pop Montreal, the Québec city's annual international music festival. Viet Cong was one of the most talked about rock bands playing that week, mostly because two of its members—Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace—used to be in the great, well-liked Calgary band Women. The set didn't disappoint; in a review I described it as restless avant-rock, mentioned Marquee Moon and, a couple of days later, I chose to see them play again in a different dive on the other side of town. Next month, Mexican Summer will re-release Viet Cong's debut Cassette, which was once a tour-only tape. "Static Wall" isn't the droned-out, impenetrable noise that the title suggests nor does it quite capture the well-whiskey and cigarette-smoke scrappiness of their live show. Instead, it's four minutes of classic psychedelia replete with smoggy melodies, twinkling spaceship sound effects and a really warm-sounding round of doo doo doos. The remastered Cassette is out on vinyl July 8th; check out some Viet Cong tour dates below, too.